Columbus out of running for 2016 Republican convention

Wednesday April 2, 2014 2:51 PM

Columbus will not be hosting the next 2016 Republican National Convention, but Cincinnati and Cleveland are still in the race.

Columbus 2016 -- a bipartisan committee which included representatives from the city of Columbus, Columbus Partnership, Experience Columbus, Franklin County and local political leaders -- still plans to pursue the Democratic National Convention.

Wednesday, April 2, the Republican National Committee announced the Capital City was out of the running for Republican National Convention.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City and Las Vegas are still considered finalists to host the convention.

Columbus 2016 had been aggressively pursuing the event since January, but did not make it as a finalist in the next round of the selection process.

“We are proud of the great work we’ve done over the past several months in our pursuit of the Republican National Convention,” Mayor Michael B. Coleman said in a prepared statement.

“I thank the RNC for its consideration and congratulate the cities that were selected to move on to the next phase of this process.”